"The First Oilwell in the United
States of America" and How
$80 Seems Cheap
By Robert Gaston
Dateline... Titusville, Pennsylvania; the year is 1854.
Oil was selling at $40.00 a barrel, (that's $18,000 at
todays prices!) .
At that time there were no oilwells. Oil was skimmed from
springs, off ponds, and creeks where it collected. Oil had
only a few uses; axle grease for wagons, adhesive, caulk
for boats, illuminating lamp fuel (kerosene), and some
medicinal use.
Dr. F. B. Brewer, a Titusville physician, visiting his
professor of surgery at Dartmouth College, had showed
him, as a curiosity, a sample of oil skimmed from a spring
on land belonging to his family. The professor in turn
showed the sample to another Dartmouth graduate,
George Bissell, a New York lawyer. In an amazing
excercise of productive creativity, lawyer Bissell wondered
if the oil could be used for lamp fuel in place of the
standard and cheapest illuminant, whale oil, the supply of
which was getting no longer adequate. Benjamin Silliman,
a Yale University chemistry and geology professor
analyzed Bissell?s sample and declared it could be
refined into excellent kerosene.
Bissell immediately leased the land on Oil Creek
containing the spring, thus becoming the first Petroleum
Landman, and interested some New Haven bankers in
backing a company that would try to develop oil in
quantity, thus becoming the first Oil and Gas Promoter.
This company, Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, was the
first oil company in the USA.
Bissell, being the creative sort, happened upon a picture
on a patent medicine circular, illustrating a wooden tower
housing machinery used to drill salt wells. Samuel Kier, a
Pittsburgh salt-works owner, had found a profitable use
for the nuisance rock-oil that came up with the brine by
bottling and selling it as " Kier?s Petroleum or Rock Oil
Celebrated for its Wonderful Curative Powers. A Natural
Remedy Procured from a Well in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, 400 feet below the Earth?s Surface". This
competed, although probably less favorably, with the
cocaine and alcohol and laudenum based "curatives" on
the market at the time. Now who would you consider to be
a better salesman? The guy who sells people powerful
narcotics in order to feel better or someone who talks
people into drinking petroleum?
If oil could be found indirectly as a result of drilling for
salt, Bissell wondered, why not use the same method to
find oil directly? It did not occur to the Pennsylvania Rock
Oil Company promoters that any special talent would be
required to drill such a well, otherwise they would
probably not have selected so unlikely a manager as
Edwin L. Drake, a railroad conductor.
Mr. Drake, was commissioned by Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company as a "Colonel", with the thought that it would
lend dignity to the project. This was the first time that
fraud was used to secure investment in the oil patch.
Drake immediately hired William A. "Uncle Billy" Smith, a
sprightly old blacksmith, knowledgeable about salt wells
and salt works, who set about building a 35 foot high
wooden derrick and equipment housing. The Drawworks
were homemade and the rig was powered by a small 6 or
8 horsepower steam engine, and a tubular marine boiler
called a "Long John". This was the first dedicated oilrig.
Uncle Billy became the first toolpusher. He worked for
Drake about three years and then retired. He took with
him the first string of tools from the Drake well and
preserved them for us to see today and are on exhibit at
a museum on the site of the well. The tool string consists
of the rope socket and sinker bar, jars and temper screw,
the reamer, some bits and a couple of sand pumps
(bailers).
Uncle Billy and his two sons kept the well drilling while
"Colonel" Drake supervised and fished (for real fish) and
played Euchre with the storeowners in Titusville, thus
becoming the first "company man".
People in Titusville referred to the operation as a foolish
venture, a "folley?, or "Drake?s Folley", after all, who had
ever heard of drilling into the ground for oil?
Soon problems arose, water coming into the hole caused
the crew to spend more time bailing out water than
drilling. One year had gone by and the well had only
been drilled to 40 feet and had cost $2,490.00, (thus
leading, I suppose, to the the first day rate contract!).
The New Haven backers, unable to sell more stock
refused to send Drake another dollar, although he
assured them he had finally solved the drilling difficulties.
The assets were then leased to the Senneca Oil
Company of New Haven, which, until then had been
bottling Oil for "medicinal" purposes.
Drake continued as drilling supervisor.
Drake lined the well with pipe to a point below the water
entry, thus shutting off the flow of water and continued to
drill through the pipe. Drake was no longer an imposter!
He had earned a real title?that of inventor?and this
ingenious idea would be adopted by all drillers after him.
This was the first use of casing in an oilwell.
On Saturday afternoon August 26, 1859, Uncle Billy
reported to Drake that the well had been drilled to a
depth of 69 ½ feet.
The drilling was shutdown on Sundays and on this
particular Sunday, while Uncle Billy was tidying-up around
the rig, he happened to look down the hole. He noted with
irritation that water had seeped into the hole and was up
within 10 feet of the top. He sent the bailer down to start
bailing it out, but when the bailer was pulled from the hole
it was dripping with oil.
Uncle Billy hurried to town and slyly did not tell Drake why
he wanted him to come to the wellsite.
"Look there!" Uncle Billy said. "What do you think of this?"
The mystified Drake looked down the hole. "What?s
that?" he asked (remember... the first "company man").
"That?s your fortune," Uncle Billy said gleefully.
The crew set about to complete the well to produce the oil
that had been found. Two inch copper tubing was run into
the well and since the flow was small, Drake and Uncle
Billy rigged up a pump. This increased the production to
35 barrels of oil a day. With oil selling for $40.00 a barrel
this started a flurry of activity. Speculators rushed to drill
wells up and down the creek, thus the first
cornershooters.
Wells were drilled, some using the simplest equipment,
and found oil that gushed as much as 1000 barrels per
day.
Soon the countryside was pockmarked with wells and in
two years time this forest of wooden derricks had sucked
so much oil from under the Pennsylvania landscape that
the price was down to 10 cents a barrel, given that there
really wasn't a market for thousands, much less millions
of barrels of oil at that time. The new oil industry nearly
died before it started. However the glut was not to
continue, as Americans and Europeans were finding
more and more new uses for this plentiful product.
With America?s emergence from the War Between the
States, the demand for petroleum products increased
and the country was headed for economic boom times.
Prices have dropped to a low of 10 cents a barrels after
discoveries in Spindletop and East Texas.
States of America" and How
$80 Seems Cheap
By Robert Gaston
Dateline... Titusville, Pennsylvania; the year is 1854.
Oil was selling at $40.00 a barrel, (that's $18,000 at
todays prices!) .
At that time there were no oilwells. Oil was skimmed from
springs, off ponds, and creeks where it collected. Oil had
only a few uses; axle grease for wagons, adhesive, caulk
for boats, illuminating lamp fuel (kerosene), and some
medicinal use.
Dr. F. B. Brewer, a Titusville physician, visiting his
professor of surgery at Dartmouth College, had showed
him, as a curiosity, a sample of oil skimmed from a spring
on land belonging to his family. The professor in turn
showed the sample to another Dartmouth graduate,
George Bissell, a New York lawyer. In an amazing
excercise of productive creativity, lawyer Bissell wondered
if the oil could be used for lamp fuel in place of the
standard and cheapest illuminant, whale oil, the supply of
which was getting no longer adequate. Benjamin Silliman,
a Yale University chemistry and geology professor
analyzed Bissell?s sample and declared it could be
refined into excellent kerosene.
Bissell immediately leased the land on Oil Creek
containing the spring, thus becoming the first Petroleum
Landman, and interested some New Haven bankers in
backing a company that would try to develop oil in
quantity, thus becoming the first Oil and Gas Promoter.
This company, Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, was the
first oil company in the USA.
Bissell, being the creative sort, happened upon a picture
on a patent medicine circular, illustrating a wooden tower
housing machinery used to drill salt wells. Samuel Kier, a
Pittsburgh salt-works owner, had found a profitable use
for the nuisance rock-oil that came up with the brine by
bottling and selling it as " Kier?s Petroleum or Rock Oil
Celebrated for its Wonderful Curative Powers. A Natural
Remedy Procured from a Well in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania, 400 feet below the Earth?s Surface". This
competed, although probably less favorably, with the
cocaine and alcohol and laudenum based "curatives" on
the market at the time. Now who would you consider to be
a better salesman? The guy who sells people powerful
narcotics in order to feel better or someone who talks
people into drinking petroleum?
If oil could be found indirectly as a result of drilling for
salt, Bissell wondered, why not use the same method to
find oil directly? It did not occur to the Pennsylvania Rock
Oil Company promoters that any special talent would be
required to drill such a well, otherwise they would
probably not have selected so unlikely a manager as
Edwin L. Drake, a railroad conductor.
Mr. Drake, was commissioned by Pennsylvania Rock Oil
Company as a "Colonel", with the thought that it would
lend dignity to the project. This was the first time that
fraud was used to secure investment in the oil patch.
Drake immediately hired William A. "Uncle Billy" Smith, a
sprightly old blacksmith, knowledgeable about salt wells
and salt works, who set about building a 35 foot high
wooden derrick and equipment housing. The Drawworks
were homemade and the rig was powered by a small 6 or
8 horsepower steam engine, and a tubular marine boiler
called a "Long John". This was the first dedicated oilrig.
Uncle Billy became the first toolpusher. He worked for
Drake about three years and then retired. He took with
him the first string of tools from the Drake well and
preserved them for us to see today and are on exhibit at
a museum on the site of the well. The tool string consists
of the rope socket and sinker bar, jars and temper screw,
the reamer, some bits and a couple of sand pumps
(bailers).
Uncle Billy and his two sons kept the well drilling while
"Colonel" Drake supervised and fished (for real fish) and
played Euchre with the storeowners in Titusville, thus
becoming the first "company man".
People in Titusville referred to the operation as a foolish
venture, a "folley?, or "Drake?s Folley", after all, who had
ever heard of drilling into the ground for oil?
Soon problems arose, water coming into the hole caused
the crew to spend more time bailing out water than
drilling. One year had gone by and the well had only
been drilled to 40 feet and had cost $2,490.00, (thus
leading, I suppose, to the the first day rate contract!).
The New Haven backers, unable to sell more stock
refused to send Drake another dollar, although he
assured them he had finally solved the drilling difficulties.
The assets were then leased to the Senneca Oil
Company of New Haven, which, until then had been
bottling Oil for "medicinal" purposes.
Drake continued as drilling supervisor.
Drake lined the well with pipe to a point below the water
entry, thus shutting off the flow of water and continued to
drill through the pipe. Drake was no longer an imposter!
He had earned a real title?that of inventor?and this
ingenious idea would be adopted by all drillers after him.
This was the first use of casing in an oilwell.
On Saturday afternoon August 26, 1859, Uncle Billy
reported to Drake that the well had been drilled to a
depth of 69 ½ feet.
The drilling was shutdown on Sundays and on this
particular Sunday, while Uncle Billy was tidying-up around
the rig, he happened to look down the hole. He noted with
irritation that water had seeped into the hole and was up
within 10 feet of the top. He sent the bailer down to start
bailing it out, but when the bailer was pulled from the hole
it was dripping with oil.
Uncle Billy hurried to town and slyly did not tell Drake why
he wanted him to come to the wellsite.
"Look there!" Uncle Billy said. "What do you think of this?"
The mystified Drake looked down the hole. "What?s
that?" he asked (remember... the first "company man").
"That?s your fortune," Uncle Billy said gleefully.
The crew set about to complete the well to produce the oil
that had been found. Two inch copper tubing was run into
the well and since the flow was small, Drake and Uncle
Billy rigged up a pump. This increased the production to
35 barrels of oil a day. With oil selling for $40.00 a barrel
this started a flurry of activity. Speculators rushed to drill
wells up and down the creek, thus the first
cornershooters.
Wells were drilled, some using the simplest equipment,
and found oil that gushed as much as 1000 barrels per
day.
Soon the countryside was pockmarked with wells and in
two years time this forest of wooden derricks had sucked
so much oil from under the Pennsylvania landscape that
the price was down to 10 cents a barrel, given that there
really wasn't a market for thousands, much less millions
of barrels of oil at that time. The new oil industry nearly
died before it started. However the glut was not to
continue, as Americans and Europeans were finding
more and more new uses for this plentiful product.
With America?s emergence from the War Between the
States, the demand for petroleum products increased
and the country was headed for economic boom times.
Prices have dropped to a low of 10 cents a barrels after
discoveries in Spindletop and East Texas.
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